| Buys up heavily when stock prices nosedived in Oct-Nov. |
Ravi Ranjan Prasad
Mumbai, Dec.1 Life Insurance Corporation of India has bought heavily into banking stocks when markets plunged sharply in October and November, data submitted to stock exchanges indicate.
LIC's stake has crossed five per cent in three public sector banks — State Bank of India, Bank of India and Allahabad Bank according to the insider trading data on the BSE.
Higher stakeDuring October-November, LIC acquired 1.67 crore shares representing 2.64 per cent stake of SBI from the secondary market.
The insurance giant increased its stake from 4.40 per cent as of September 30 to 7.04 per cent as on November 18, 2008.
The shares of SBI, the largest public sector bank, had dipped to 52-week low of Rs 991 on October 27 in intra-day trading and closed at Rs 1056.
According to analysts, LIC had bought shares taking advantage of the attractive valuation.
During this time, domestic institutions were buying to support the falling Sensex, they said.
LIC held 3.62 per cent stake in SBI as on December 31, 2007 and it went up by less than one per cent till September 30, 2008 to 4.40 per cent.
SBI shares downSBI shares closed at Rs 1055.95 on Monday, down by 2.84 per cent,
LIC also purchased 9.6 lakh shares of Bank of India on November 11, 2008 raising its stake to 5.14 per cent.
In Allahabad Bank, it has bought over 1.09 crore shares, or 1.45 per cent stake, taking its stake to 8.84 per cent as on November 12, as compared to 6.39 per cent as on September 30, 2008.
Buying in DaburLIC has also raised its stake in FMCG major Dabur India to 5 per cent from 4.24 per cent.
The Corporation bought 18.54 lakh shares of Dabur India on November 17 taking its total shareholding in the company to 5 per cent.
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